


Wrong Side of Reality

by Starrie_Wolf



Series: Starrie's Yuletide Gifts 2019 [7]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Don't copy to another site, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, I can't tag anything without giving out spoilers LOL, Starrie's Yuletide Gifts 2019, Thousand Year Blood War Arc, UraIchi Prompt Challenge #4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:41:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21833863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starrie_Wolf/pseuds/Starrie_Wolf
Summary: If there was one thing that every invader of Soul Society did wrong, it was that each and every one of them measured one's power by the strength of their reiatsu alone. And every single one of them failed, because they did not understand that to be truly powerful, one must first have the Means to ensure their plans succeed.He, who has been watching from the shadows for a thousand years, refuses to make the same mistake.
Relationships: Kurosaki Ichigo & Urahara Kisuke
Series: Starrie's Yuletide Gifts 2019 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1579774
Comments: 14
Kudos: 253
Collections: UraIchi Prompt Challenge #4





	Wrong Side of Reality

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ivy_n_better](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ivy_n_better/gifts).



> Favourite Yuletide Gift prompt alert <3
> 
> UraIchi Prompt Challenge #4  
> Prompt: 006. "Woke up on the wrong side of reality / And there’s a madness that's just coursing right through me." - Fall Out Boy, Young and Menace
> 
> Most of the dialogue is adapted from Bleach TYBW: chapters 510, 616-618.

“Your Majesty,” one of his Sternritter report. “It’s too dark, we can’t proceed any further.”

He waves him off. “No matter.”

Even though they are so deep underground, the rumbling continues, the aftershocks making the ground under his feet tremble. He pays it no mind. It will soon be the end of Seireitei anyway.

More importantly…

“You can hear it, right?” he speaks out loud, into the darkness. “Those of us who are innocent in the eyes of Soul Society can only come this far. We cannot advance further into the heart of the darkness.” He sighs, as if moved. “Such quintessential Soul Society nonsense, wouldn’t you say?”

Nothing but silence greets him.

Undeterred, he continues. “But you on the other hand... you can hear my voice from over here, can you not? Answer me... Urahara Kisuke.”

The silence stretches on. It’s almost as if no one is within the cocoon of darkness, so thick it hangs like a tangible barrier in front of him. Even him, with his unparalleled reiatsu and superior senses, is unable to sense anything within.

Behind him, his Sternritter shift impatiently.

He ignores them.

“Not a word in reply, hm,” he continues his monologue. “Are you one of those who find themselves unable to converse via reiatsu alone?” He pauses meaningfully, but there is no retort forthcoming. The man trapped within… he is either not prone to emotional outbursts, or truly unable to do so. It does not matter. “Or do you mean to tell me that even someone such as yourself is incapable of such a thing in this place?”

Nothing.

He sighs, as if put-upon. It is a show, of course, and the man he is speaking will know as much. That is why he has personally come all the way to a place like this, after all. “Well, I suppose I can be magnanimous. I can undo the seal on your mouth.”

There is someone here worth this whole trip, the sacrifices his loyal Sternritter are making up in Soul Society. He has no doubt of their strength, of course, but Captain-Commander Yamamoto Shigekuni Genryūsai is just as strong, and the Royal Guard will require his personal attention. He does not have long to spend in this place.

He _gestures_ , a spear of reiatsu slamming into the curtain of darkness, feeling the barrier _bend_ before his might.

“Well, now,” he continues, unruffled. “With this, you should be able to talk with your mouth instead of using reiatsu. That said, when a person has had their mouth sealed for two whole years, most people are unable to speak anyway. However, you’re an exception to this, are you not?”

Like the inhale of a hungry beast, the darkness finally, _finally_ stirs.

“I suppose I am.”

There’s no hint of hoarseness, no suggestion of disuse. The very air shudders, and then someone steps out from the darkness.

He is reluctantly impressed. Mugen is supposed to be for eternity, and yet this man, within just two years…

“So you were able to undo the rest of the seals on your own.”

But of course. Had Urahara Kisuke been any less capable than this, he would not be making this trip down here at all. As a gesture of goodwill, he forms his reiatsu with another gesture, and with a soft ‘clink’ the chains wound around Urahara’s right eye and right hand dissolve into reishi particles.

Urahara blinks in the sudden light, but gives no other sign of weakness. “Ah,” he says politely. “You would be…”

“Kurosaki Ichigo,” Ichigo says, ignoring the shifting going on behind him, “the reincarnation of Yhwach the Almighty. Pleased to meet you, Urahara Kisuke.”

Urahara dips his head in the barest semblance of a nod. “Likewise. I’ve heard of you,” he comments. “The Sealed King, was it not?”

Ichigo thrusts out a hand before one of his Sternritter could make a move. Loyal, they are, and sometimes a little overly-reactive. “Silence!” he thunders. It is a valid question, and an acceptable test. “Yes,” he replies simply. “As one formerly-sealed transcendent being to another, I ask: do you want to leave this place?”

“I don’t recall asking you to release me,” Urahara retorts immediately.

His Sternritter shift restlessly at the challenging tone, but they do not interrupt again. Good, they can learn.

“It’s not a favour you have to repay. Consider it a... down payment.”

“Would one come all the way to a man they did not expect to be freeing, with the knowledge of how to release them embedded in their brain?” questions Urahara, lifting his brows in polite incredulity.

“Well, well. Looks like you’ve seen right through me.” As expected, of course. There is no point in playing word games with this man. “Indeed. I come to you with a proposition. You, with your Means – will you join my ranks?”

Urahara blinks placidly at him. “No.”

Unfortunate, but an expected answer. “Then will you walk with me? Breathe the fresh air once again, I am sure you have missed it in your two years in this place.”

“You mean,” Urahara says wryly, “the air of the very same Soul Society that just got trashed by you?”

Ichigo laughs.

His Sternritter flinch back as one.

“I notice that you have heard my Kaiser Gesang,” he changes tack. “But not the final verse, I imagine.” But of course, a man such as Urahara Kisuke would not simply up and join forces with a man who had been defeated once, by the very people he is about to fight. If Urahara had been a lesser man, Ichigo would not be standing here right now, squandering the time that his subordinates bought with their lives for a chance to speak with him.

“Indeed?” Urahara asks politely, but Ichigo can see that he has successfully piqued Urahara’s curiosity. “Quincy lore has it that – after nine hundred years of being sealed, you would regain your pulse. After another ninety, you would regain your intellect. And after nine more years, you would absorb the power of every ‘impure’ Quincy to make their abilities your own.”

He is correct, of course. Ichigo does not doubt the information network of a man like Urahara Kisuke, who could bring Soul Society crashing to its knees at his whim. It only strengthens his belief that with this man by his side, he would be able to do what the first Yhwach could not, did not, _have not_.

“And after nine days, the Once-Sealed King would regain the world,” he recites, completing the prophecy. “I am not surprised. The version we spread to the Quincy populace is incomplete on purpose.”

After all, prophecies run the danger of becoming self-fulfilling when used in the wrong hands, and the first Yhwach was not that much of a fool.

Something almost resembling a smirk flits across Urahara’s face. “You are truly a fascinating man,” he comments, but he no longer looks as dismissive as before.

Good.

“I feel as if we are definitely at a point where our interests are about to intersect,” Ichigo says aloud, and stretches out a hand, unafraid. It is said that Urahara’s reiatsu is so powerful that he turns all who touch him to dust – but then, they were not Ichigo, carrier of a thousand years of legacy, and the reiatsu of every Quincy who has lived and died since Yhwach’s first reign. “So, like I said, do you not wish to breathe the fresh air once again, at the top of the world this time?”

And this time, Urahara takes it.

**Author's Note:**

> And then Ichigo burns Soul Society down as a courting gift :kisukelolz:
> 
> Yuletide Gift Prompt:
>
>> Antagonist!Kisuke, Time travel/Time Loop, Betrayal, Soul King!Ichigo or Almighty/Clairvoyant!Ichigo. Pick whatever you want :3
> 
> I saw "Almighty!Ichigo" and read it as "The Almighty!Ichigo" instead... and the rest is history XD
> 
> [cywscross's UraIchi Discord server](https://discordapp.com/invite/ADFnKTZ#_=_) | [Starrie's fic sneak preview server](https://discord.gg/8yJVmbD) | [Starrie's Tumblr](http://starriewolf.tumblr.com/)


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